The most common complaints by business-owners against the current
administration tend to revolve around the economic uncertainty and
increased regulation that have made it next to impossible to plan for
the future.

Stephanie Gallagher, the president of World City America Inc.,
is lending her voice to the fray after the Obama administration
reportedly moved to prevent American cruise liners from being eligible
to get the long-term financing under Title XI that makes building
something as massive as a cruise ship possible.

As Royal Caribbean acquires its third Oasis-class ship from Finland, Gallagher writes
that World City America has invested over a decade and $60 million in
designing a “superior product” that would be built in America, by
Americans, and paying taxes to the U.S. government.

“Having demonstrated that our plan would be economically sound, would
not cost the taxpayers anything, would not increase the debt but would
improve the deficit, the only way to push us off the cliff was to enact
policy that preempted the nation’s ship financing program from being
used to build cruise ships. That’s what the Obama Administration did,”
Gallagher claims.

(AP File Photo)

Gallagher’s main point of contention is that the cruise industry is
overwhelmingly funded by American dollars, but the companies typically
build the vessels out of the country, hire international employees, and
pay far fewer taxes than a wholly American company would.

Gallagher thinks the change is the result of politics and special
interests, and while she notes that both parties are susceptible to such
incentives, Gallagher ultimately holds the current administration
responsible.

Gallagher’s letter continues:

“…we do blame the Obama Administration for throwing down the gauntlet…for
precluding America’s long-delayed entry into this booming US-driven
market; for shutting the door on what we have proven is possible and
viable if the government applied the Title XI regulations as intended – not as a subsidy for special interests, but as a job-creating, economy-boosting and tax revenue-generating program and policy.”

“Why, Mr. Obama, would you choose this, of all times, to lock
out American shipbuilders, hotel construction companies, hundreds of US
suppliers in all fifty states, and thousands of long-term
self-sustaining new jobs for our dwindling Merchant Marine and US hospitality workers?”

“Why…when there are twenty-three million Americans out of
work, would you decide to announce a policy that America and Americans
can’t participate in this booming US-driven market that has grown steadily at 7% or more every year, recession or no recession, for decades?” [Emphasis added]

“All is fair in love and war,” Gallagher accepts in conclusion,
adding: “but don’t tell the American people that you wake up every day
thinking of ways to give the American workers a fair shot in the global
economy. Don‘t claim to ’walk the walk.’”